Eat Stop Eat Expanded Edition is the newly released update of Brad Pilon's three-year-old book about intermittent fasting. This is the first and only review you'll need to read on it.

Right off the bat, let me say that the new edition is a tremendous improvement over the original Eat Stop Eat.

Brad has given me an OK to quote some passages that I found particularly interesting and would be enlightening for my readers; this is a Leangains exclusive.

I've also linked to the references provided in the book. These are just snippets. There's plenty more good stuff in the book.

Fasting and testosterone

"After thoroughly reviewing the available research, I found that short term fasting does not negatively affect testosterone levels. More prolonged fasts seem to be associated with slight decreases in Testosterone levels. A 58-hour fast has been noted to cause reduced morning serum Testosterone measurements by the third straight morning of fasting; however, these measurements were still well within the normal range for healthy adults.

In fact, other studies have found that it takes about 9 straight days of fasting before a significant decrease in Testosterone levels is observed. Research examining the effects of brief fasting (14-18 hours) over 21 days found that testosterone levels were not affected by almost a month of short-term fasting."

"Low blood sugar"

"The basic story is that if they don’t eat every three or four hours then they becomehypoglycemic and become irritable, moody, light-headed and shaky. I find this an interesting phenomenon considering as little as 5-10% of the population actually has a malfunction in their ability to regulate their blood sugar levels. There is no actual cut off value for blood glucose levels that truly defines hypoglycemia for all people and purposes."

"According to the research I reviewed on the effects of short term fasting on blood sugar, a 24-hour fast should not place you into a hypoglycemic state, and I have not seen any research that has shown a subject going below 3.6 mmol/L blood sugar during a short term fast."

Brad later explains what those people who apparently can't go a few hours without keeling over really are suffering from. It ain't "low blood sugar"...and if I got a dollar each time I heard someone complain about that, I'd be a millionaire by now.

Fasting and mental performance

"In a test where twenty-one university aged people were asked to perform a series of intellectual tests after having either a normal meal, skipping one meal, skipping two meals or going 24 hours without food, researchers found no difference in performance on measures of reaction time, recall or focused attention time. This led the authors of the study to conclude that short-term food deprivation did not significantly impair cognitive function.

These results have been confirmed in additional studies where healthy young adults ate as little as 300 Calories over a two day period and experienced no decrease in tests of cognitive performance (including vigilance, choice reaction time, learning, memory, and reasoning), activity, sleep, and mood)."

Fasting and cold fingers

"Q: Sometimes when I fast my finger tips get cold, why is that?

Fasting increases the blood flow to you body fat (the process is called adipose tissue blood flow). So when you are fasting more blood is travelling to your body fat, presumably to help move it to your muscles where it can be burned as a fuel. Do to this increased travel to your body fat, micro-vasodilation occurs in your fingertips and sometimes toes to compensate. So in some cases it’s a ‘necessary evil’ in the fat loss process."

I've heard people mention cold fingers, hands and feet after longer fasting periods so the above is a good addition to the FAQ at the end of the book.

Anyone interested in intermittent fasting: the science behind it, as a lifestyle, or as a way to lose fat and maintain leanness.

What will I learn from it?

Besides learning how to practice the Eat Stop Eat lifestyle, this book covers topics pertaining to intermittent fasting and metabolism, health, body composition, hormonal effects and much more.

Strong points

* The book is almost twice as long as the original Eat Stop Eat - and it's 100% interesting and valuable information, not useless filler material. Brad has added information and research on the effects of fasting on testosterone, leptin, cortisol, inflammation, fasted training, whole new chapters devoted to blood glucose and fasting, fasting and the brain, workout design, and more. The FAQ is also greatly expanded. I was very impressed with the plethora of new information and how it was presented. To be honest, and this is just the cynic in me speaking, I only expected fluff and maybe some more on the practical side of things.

* One of the weak points of the original was Pilon's advice and recommendations for resistance training. Instead of advocating heavy resistance training to maintain or gain muscle during dieting, Brad linked to some of his affiliates circuit training workouts. Not so in this edition. Instead, Brad covers resistance training basics and research, and offers solid non-retarded advice to go with it: i.e. the importance of progressive overloading, guidelines regarding training frequency, volume, etc. The new chapter on workout design is a very welcome addition for beginners purchasing the book. I am also pleased to see that Brad and I are on the same page when it comes to cardio for fat loss (which is that it's a poor return on your time investment).

* Very newbie friendly, yet well referenced and scientifically accurate. This is the only book on the market with a substantial collection of research on intermittent fasting.

* Does a good job of dispelling the various diet myths out there: "starvation mode," the claim that you will lose muscle if you don't eat every so often, and much more.

* An enjoyable reading experience.

Weak points

* There are no calorie/macronutrient specific guidelines given in this book, which might be a problem for some people. Of course, if you have a good grasp on calorie counting and such, this is a non-issue. On the other hand, I think Brad left out meal plans/nutritional guidelines intentionally, since he pushes this as a lifestyle diet rather than a "diet" diet, so to speak.

* If I have to to nitpick: Brad talks a lot about the importance of low insulin for fat burning and fat loss. While he does not state anything outright incorrect, it might give the beginner the impression that maintaining low insulin is absolutely critical to lose fat. That in turn might lead to the conclusion that lower carb diets are preferable to higher carb diets, and so forth. On the other hand, he does mention the importance of calorie intake rather macronutrient intakes and backs this up with references.

There is also one part where Brad talks about a "glucagon-dominant" metabolism for fat loss, which is not the case (glucagon does not cause fat burning). In one part Brad also cites a researcher who claims that "the idea that there is golden period of getting amino acids into your muscles is speculative at best," which is untrue. Several studies show increased muscle protein synthesis when protein is consumed pre-workout. This is the only claim I take major issue with.

Overall

I rarely give praise or a glowing review unless it's warranted but Brad deserves one. While I don't agree with Brad's views about protein (as stated in his protein book; however, he does mention the positive effects of high protein intake during dieting in this one), there's not much I disagree on, or can critique, here. It's in every way a significant improvement over the original, which was already a good book. If you're remotely interested in the topic, get this. You will not regret it.

Is it worth the purchase if you have the old Eat Stop Eat? For someone like myself, a total geek about intermittent fasting and the research surrounding it, definitely. With the material Brad added, this is one of the best and most interesting books on physiology and dietetics I have ever purchased. I rank it right up there with Lyle McDonald's books. Eat Stop Eat Expanded Edition is a fantastic contribution to the intermittent fasting community.

Thanks, Martin, for this in-depth review of ESE. I've found it best to incorporate both his and your principles into my diet. I use John Romaniello's caloric estimate to calculate my maintenance and eat at maintenance+600 on lifting days and maintenance on all other days, eating carbs only post-training and making the best use I can of the post-workout "window of opportunity". I feed from 11am to 7pm. However, I train completely fasted, i.e. I don't even consume BCAAs pre-workout (this would be Pilon's principles as he doesn't consider it to have any effect on muscle catabolism). The muscle hasn't fallen off me so far, as far as I can tell. I'm sure that my results don't translate to everyone else's, though, so it's just personal feedback on the programme.

On another note, I really enjoyed your leangains training video. I appreciate it that you posted it on YouTube as I use my iPhone to access the Internet most of the time and could view it on my device. Please make more videos and complete your book on fasting soon, so that it might take it's rightful place beside Lyle McDonald's diet books and ESE on my "diet book" category of reading materials.

Finally, I'm sure you've hears about Venuto's new book, The Holy Grail. He mentions carb-cycling there. Would that be the same as what you currently preach (except without the fasting and the square meals)?

does "increased muscle protein synthesis" meas MORE "muscle mass"??I think here Brad is right about this matter..if we increase muscle in every "muscle protein synthesis" ,"key meals",or some magical feeding window we'll see moreRonnie Coleman around us!!

Would it be more beneficial in your opinion to eat 150 to 200 grams of protein per day while only eating 1,000 calories or is 60grams on average plenty. I weigh 185 pounds and am 6 feet tall (sorry don't know the conversion because as an American we ignore everyone else). I lift heavy four times per week following the advice you preach. I have a 32.5 inch waist but am trying to cut down to 31 inches. Which means I'll probably lose 7 to 10 pounds of fat. So the question is should I concern myself with macronutrients and protein especially or don't worry about it and just focus on low calories.

That chapter on inflammation and muscle building is very interesting. Never read about that before. Any thoughts on that, Martin? I guess it makes sense to reduce omega-6 fats and up your intake of omega-3s and saturated fats then? Thanks for a really good and detailed review.

"Fasting increases the blood flow to you body fat (the process is called adipose tissue blood flow). So when you are fasting more blood is traveling to your body fat, presumably to help move it to your muscles where it can be burned as a fuel. Do to this increased travel to your body fat, micro-vasodilation occurs in your fingertips and sometimes toes to compensate. So in some cases it’s a ‘necessary evil’ in the fat loss process."

Wouldn't vasoconstriction, not vasodilation, be responsible for cold extremities? I'm not sure if this was a typographical error or a misunderstanding on my part. If it is the latter, I apologize for my being dense!

Since there is a fixed amount of blood in teh body, if you start sending more one place (e.g. fat cells), you can't send it other places (e.g. the extremities).

That's what Martin is saying: since there is increased blood flow to fat cells, there is less sent to the extremities. Hence you get localized vasoconstriction in the fingers/toes secondary to vasodilation in adipose tissue.

"Brad later explains what those people who apparently can't go a few hours without keeling over really are suffering from. It ain't "low blood sugar"...and if I got a dollar each time I heard someone complain about that, I'd be a millionaire by now."

"Do you implement off-weeks and/or deload weeks in your training regimen. I know that you workout 3x every 8-10 days, so I was wondering whether or not you find off weeks necessary."

Nope, don't find them necessary.

Dor,

"What's responsible for this effect, then?"

In summary, being a whiny little bitch.

Brad puts it a little more eloquently:

"...the symptoms of hypoglycemia could in fact be related to anxiety and stress over not eating, as opposed to being caused by low blood sugar. This anxiety could be over fear of becoming hypoglycemic, fear that they are doing something unhealthy by not eating, or even a drug-like withdrawal response to not being able to eat when they wanted to."

Btw, in addition to the above, Brad quotes studies where researchers monitored blood glucose levels in individuals who (by their own account) suffered hypoglycemic episodes and they found no difference compared to normal controls.

Now of course, there's exceptions to every rule but needless to say the great majority of those who tell you they experience various troubles from not eating every so often are not really suffering from true hypoglycemia.

Thanks for the good review and generally great blog Martin- been following for awhile and since implementing your form of IF/training have broken through plateaus in both strength and stubborn fat. I'm not a newbie at nutrition or strength training but nothing has given me results as quickly and noticeably as this while also being sustainable over the long term as part of a healthy lifestyle. Amazing stuff.

>>>No it is not critical to have low insulin levels to lose fat. This is common dogma among religious lo-carbers but just not true. ---------------------------------

That might be technically true, but low-carb dieting is a shitload easier.

Personally I think hunger suppressing ketosis and IF are a marriage made in heaven.

A caloric deficit interrupted by insulin spiking carb intake keeps me hungry and precouupied with food all the time.

When I'm on a high-fat diet, insatiable food cravings go away and suddenly fasting and dieting become nearly effortless (for myself and my wife at least)

FYI we are neither diabetic nor abnormally insulin resistant and we do exercise and lift. In my experience, the only downside to low-carb dieting is reduced work capacity - the solution for me was to just limit lifting duration/volume and eat sweet potatoes once a week or so.

I haven't read ESE yet, but followed the comments here and I'm wondering: Regarding high insulin levels and fat accumulation, what about Gary Taubes' research in Good Calories, Bad Calories?It's a mighty tome of scientific analysis and criticism, exploring obesity research and the bias behind scientific process and publication. Taubes ultimately explores what he believes to be the driving force behind fat accumulation - chronically raised insulin levels, which leads to Metabolic Syndrome, obesity, diabetes, cancer and heart disease. This book certainly reinforced my decision to support my longevity and health by keeping a tight rein on my blood glucose, and therefore insulin levels.

Personally I think hunger suppressing ketosis and IF are a marriage made in heaven.

A caloric deficit interrupted by insulin spiking carb intake keeps me hungry and precouupied with food all the time. "

Personally, I have found that idea to be complete bullshit. As have many other people. There is absolutely no need to be in ketosis or eat very low-carb in order to control appetite. And reducing work capacity is something I'm not interested in.

When cycling carbs wisely as in the lean gains protocol I have found no such problems with hunger or being preoccupied with food. On the contrary fasting has been a breeze and appetite control has been solid. Even on training days when I eat huge high-carb pwo meals and a caloric surplus.

Here is a quote addressing this issue from Martin I found in an earlier post:

"I was a carbophobe many years ago. Trust me when I say that it's ultimately a highly counterproductive mindset if you're looking to maintain leanness, performance and your sanity in the long-term. I'm lucky that I got out of it. Since a few years back, at the same time I started using intermittent fasting and developed the Leangains method, I have occupied the middle ground.

There is a place for both higher fat and higher carb intakes depending on occasion. The exclusion of either one macronutrient breeds a longing for the other. Eating sufficient amounts of each one on a regular basis is key. That's why Leangains is a cyclical diet. Low carbs, higher fat on rest days, higher carbs and lower fat on training days. In my experience this is just perfect."

I had the first edition of Eat-Stop-Eat. Since January of this year I've lost approx. 20-25 lbs following his recommended approach of 1 or 2 24 hour fasts per week. I usually work out about 3-4 times per week, usually 3x resistance (kettlebells or weights) and 1x yoga or stretching. Best of all, during this time I've still been able to enjoy the foods I love - e.g. Tim Hortons coffee & donuts or Marble Slab ice cream. I'm sure if I ate cleanly on my non-fasting days I would lose even more weight but I know from previous experience that that's not a diet I can maintain over any lengthy period of time.

Did I need to purchase the new edition? Probably not, but since the first one worked so well for me I don't feel bad about paying to learn a little bit more and not lose interest in IF.

I want to tell you that I visited your site for the first time about 9 days ago.... I'm hooked.

I read through EatStopEat and I can't get enough information right now to satisfy my desire to understand and learn this. I too was in search of something real when it comes to nutrition. As a fellow personal trainer, I just felt in my gut there has to be a better way to eat and live.

I will begin my own journey using your IF principals beginning next week. I have a client that is willing to do this with me, so we are stoked. I am even beginning to change my personal blog and start tracking the changes in my body.

Thanks for another great post! I use a bit of a mix of your style of fasting and ESE. I maintain an 8 hour or less easting window daily, but I also mix in some longer fasts (22-24 hrs) once or twice per week.

I have a question pertaining to training ... my main hobby is mountain biking and I compete in a few endurance races each year. That said I also love weight training, but obviously extra "bulk/weight" is a negative for bicycling (power/weight ratio important)

What would the best style of lifting be to at least maintain and maybe even gain strength, without adding any unnecessary bulk? low weight, high rep (15-20), medium weight, medium rep (8-12), or high weight, low rep (4-6). My understanding is high weight, low reps adds the least bulk, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on this subject ... Thanks!

Thanks for the great review Martin. I have only been on your site for a few days, so I haven't had a chance to review everything. I did buy his book based on your review and thought it is well done. A few questions: 1)I'd prefer to do the 16 hr. fast daily vs. the 24hr 2x week, what if any difference would there be. 2) I assume that it is ok to drink pre-workout drinks (during your prescribed fasting period) such as jack3d, no xplode, etc as well as drinks such as zipfizz, and Low carb monster??(It doesn't appear to fit into the ESE fast...)

With the available evidence, the long-term (metabolic) advantages of IF regarding body composition are highly interesting but remain speculative.

At the end of the day, the main determinant of fat loss are calories.

Now, IF makes it easier for many people (me included) because of better diet compliance resulting from its simplicity. It´s the best weapon to improve body composition I have ever tried. I can assure you that I would have never achieved the body I now own without Leangains methods. Finish that book of yours pleeaaaaase!!!!

By refering to fat loss you in fact addressed the recomposition idea, as I don´t think you would like to lose muscle mass while leaning out.

So if you want to know if there is any advantage of 24 vs 16 regarding fat loss, no there isn´t because it´s all about calories. Eating all your calories after the 24 hour mark will be the same than if you eat them during an 8 hour period.

Personally, the degree up top which I can extend the fasting phase is determined by my actual energetic reserves (which depend on how much calories I ate and expended the day before).

Great report on ESE. I've known Brad for years and the IF concept really turned my view on food on its head and has given me back power of my own body.

I tend to do a fast day whenever I am flying somewhere and usually the day after any big occasion. Weddings, Birthday parties, thanksgiving etc. With this method in place, I can control my weight and still live a super fun life.

Check out my fasting experience as it started a few months even before i heard about ESE.

Great review. Just wanted to add a comment. In the review you state "Is it worth the purchase if you have the old Eat Stop Eat?". I believe Brad has emailed everyone that has ever purchased ESE and gave them a Free update to the latest edition. At least that's what happened to me!

Martin what do you think of Pilons ideas of short-term fasting only 1-2 times/week for 24h instead of the daily fasting around 16-18 hours, with the argument that fat oxidation and growth hormone levels are more increased fasting longer?

"Martin what do you think of Pilons ideas of short-term fasting only 1-2 times/week for 24h instead of the daily fasting around 16-18 hours, with the argument that fat oxidation and growth hormone levels are more increased fasting longer?"

As a type 1 diabetic, I always want to laugh when people say they have self-diagnosed "hypoglycemia" and "need" to eat candy every hour or two to prevent it. I also want to slap them. Even my body can maintain my blood sugars in a fast.

1: If you think you actually have a hypoglycemic disorder, go to an endocrinologist. You. Can. Die. From. This.

2: You probably don't. Go see an endocrinologist so you can stop pretending you can't diet.

3: If you're trying to detect a hypoglycemic episode, be on the lookout for food (esp. sugars) tasting different (in my case, tasting BAD), vision difficulties, and increased heart rate.

Simple irritability is probably just you sulking that you haven't had candy in a couple minutes. Fat ***.

Found this page, started reading, saw the book, acquired the book, read the book, returned to your post, finished reading the rest of what you had to say. I did all of this in less than 3 hours. I feel (at least) 10x smarter about how to improve my overall health and physique. Can't wait to add intermittent fasting into my lifestyle. Thank you again, Martin (& Brad)

"Martin what do you think of Pilons ideas of short-term fasting only 1-2 times/week for 24h instead of the daily fasting around 16-18 hours, with the argument that fat oxidation and growth hormone levels are more increased fasting longer?"

I'm wondering what is the "I have low blood sugar" people's real problem, you said Brad explains it later in his book. I am personally quite sick of so many people whining about it like if it was a fact. I find it very easy to fast, without being hungry, and back when I used to eat breakfast in the morning and something in every 3-4 hours I was hungry almost all the time but I still didn't have the imagination to make assumptions about my blood sugar :D.